Carving out 'sorry' on the French Open clay

The 27th-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia was on the wrong end of a shutout set on Saturday and decided he needed to apologize right then and there to the ticket-buyers in the seats at Court Suzanne Lenglen.

Finally having won one game after losing the first eight against No. 6 David Ferrer of Spain, Youzhny used the toe of his right sneaker to carve a mea culpa in the red clay near the baseline.

He etched out "SORRi!" - stamping the dot atop the lowercase last letter for emphasis before heading to the sideline for a changeover.

"People in the stands may not have noticed, but I think I had to do this," Youzhny said after his 6-0, 6-2, 6-2 loss.

"There was a lot of people. That's why I write 'sorry' - because I can't show them a nice game," he explained. "The way we played in the beginning, it was not really interesting for people."

Ferrer, who said he didn't see Youzhny's lettering, was part of Spain's 5-0 showing Saturday, led by Rafael Nadal, who continued his bid for a record seventh French Open title by overpowering Eduardo Schwank of Argentina 6-1, 6-3, 6-4.

"Now the first week has gone by," said Nadal, who gets a day off Sunday, his 26th birthday. "It's always the most complicated week to manage."

The other Spaniards who moved on were No. 12 Nicolas Almagro, No. 13 Juan Monaco and No. 20 Marcel Granollers, a five-set winner against Paul-Henri Mathieu, the Frenchman who edged John Isner in an 18-16 fifth set in the second round.